Up With the Chickens

I woke up at 6:00 today, thanks to my early rising cat who wouldn't keep quiet in the bedroom I share with my sister at my parents' house. I finally got out of bed around 6:45 and dragged him downstairs with me so Kelly could at least sleep in peace. We watched the sun come up and now I'm watching the Today show with the volume down so low I'm having to read their lips to understand the stories. I had two Christmas cookies for breakfast and am browsing all the online sales. Does anyone have short legs? If so, these pants at JCrew are a steal of a deal. I wish they had my size.

Yesterday I played Santa's elf and wrapped close to 30 presents for my mom. It must have taken me 4 hours. Wrapping takes forever! I had to hand-make bows for them out of craft ribbon, which at first was really hard and ended up being pretty fun. I got really good at making those bows. I also baked a batch of Neiman Marcus Cookies. Have you heard the story about their recipe? They are a bit of work to make. The recipe calls for blended oats, chopped nuts and a shredded Hershey's bar. We didn't have a candy bar, so I used a handful of Hershey's kisses and and a cheese grater. It took some time, but the cookies are delicious. Especially for breakfast.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Phlem-y

Saturday morning, one day into my official Christmas vacation, I woke up with the World's Worst Cold. My throat felt like I was swallowing knives and my entire face was consumed by gigantic, swollen sinuses. Mark and I were headed to Tulsa that day for a graduation/birthday party for a college friends of his, and I had strict orders to be at his house ready to hit the road by 8:30 AM. So I stopped by CVS and spent close to $30 on Tylenol Cold, Chloroseptic throat spray and cough drops. Fast forward to that evening and I am all but dying in a house of 20 people who are trying to re-live their college days. Some of them were still awake (and drinking) at 5:00 AM. Oh geez.

Sunday morning we hit the road (in 14 degree weather!) and drive back to Dallas and head straight for the Care Now. I wait about an hour and see a bitchy lady who is angry that she went to medical school, only to work at a primary care unit that is open on Sundays and four days before Christmas. She assaults me with the Strep Throat Kit (seriously. she held the swab stick like she was in a fencing match and shoved it into my throat as if she was jousting with a knight) and runs some tests. Outcome? It's not strep. Just the World's Worst Cold that is draining into my throat and growing bacteria. She writes me a prescription for penicillin (yes!) and tells me to take Mucinex with it. Just like on the commercials where the little green glob families are living inside of you? Yup. That's what's going on in my throat. I've been on the drugs for a day and a half now. Let's just say it's a lot of nose blowing. As long as I'm feeling better by Christmas, I'll deal with it. Everyone who steps foot into my parents' house is immediately handed a Vitamin C tablet.

So I'm up in Muenster now. It's been almost two days and I haven't showered yet. I love being here and having nothing to do. Nothing but rest and get over the WWC and listen to Christmas carols on iTunes. We ate dinner tonight at the kitchen table with the entire family for the first time in who knows how long! Sure it was KFC chicken in a bucket, but it felt like home to me.

Oh Christmas Tree

Here's a shot of my tree. You can't really see him, but there's a little cat curled up underneath it. It is his new favorite place to sleep!

Christmas Vacay 2K8

As of twelve noon today I am officially on CHRISTMAS VACATION! The joys of working for a school. I was just as excited as the little kids today, counting down the minutes on the clock. We are getting new carpet in our offices over the holidays, so we had to pack up all our desks and filing cabinets and then move our computers, printer, scanners, etc. etc. etc into the chapel. It was more of a chore than I thought it was going to be. I hit up the Galleria on the way home, before it got too busy this evening. I grabbed a gift for Mark's parents - these adorable luggage tags at Brookstone -- that I thought would be fun for when we travel to China. I think they will make some good stocking stuffers. I still have two more gifts to buy, but they require a trip to Wal Mart, which will likely be INSANE this weekend. I might go first thing tomorrow morning, and hopefully beat the rush.

I put my tree up in my apartment the weekend after Thanksgiving. I love how the Christmas lights make everything feel so cozy. When I leave my place for a few hours, I always leave the tree plugged in so I can see it glowing right when I walk in the door. But then I always have this fear that it's going to catch fire while I'm gone and the complex will burn down and all my stuff will be destroyed. It's a fake tree. I am probably overreacting a tad.

It has been so foggy here all week. Yesterday they predicted "freezing fog," but it turned out it was too warm in the morning. I kind of wanted too see what this freezing fog was though. Is it like driving into sheets of ice? Instead we have mildly warm, slightly brown fog that's lingering everywhere. It's not too pretty. Although I can't help but think that the vampires are out and about in this weather. Twilight, anyone?

.5 Snow Days

This morning my school had a delayed arrival due to the "Artic Blast" that hit town last night and this morning. Every morning I leave my apartment to head for work at 7:08 (seriously, I have it down to the very minute) and get to my desk by about 7:25. I resisted getting out of bed until 6:25, waiting to watch the names of the schools that were closed or delayed scroll across the bottom of the TV screen on the morning news. I saw all our neighboring schools, but finally groaned and started brushing my teeth just shy of 6:30. As I prepared to walk out the door around seven, my boss called and said we weren't opening until 10:00. Awesome. So much for sleeping late. So I put on my PJ pants, and had the most productive extra two hours of my entire week. I wrapped all my remaining Christmas presents. I finally finished the calendar I have been working on in iPhoto for months and ordered it (express shipping) for my parent for Christmas. I unpacked my suitcases from this weekend. I did some shoulder exercises with my free weights (my weights instructor at the gym swears they are the easiest muscle to define). I watched the Today Show and Regis and Kelly and played with Gus. I emptied the dishwasher. If only work could start at 10:00 every day.

I had this zany idea to join a running class after the first of the year. My friend Laura inspired me because she is going to train for a half marathon and has signed up for a group that meets three times a week at five thirty in the morning to run. There's no way on earth I could do that. But I found a group that meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:15 and runs for an hour. They put you in a small pace group of people that run at the same speed as you and the trainers help you increase your distance and endurance. It's a "101 Class" for non-runners. I am trying to convince Mark to do it with me, and also myself to believe that I would actually willingly go run outside in January and February. It could be a good New Year's Resolution though.

I have this really bad habit of forgetting to bring wedding gifts to weddings. I always forget them in the car. Then I drive around with them for weeks after the wedding, waiting to run into the Newlyweds and deliver the gift. I went to a wedding the weekend before Thanksgiving and finally gave the bride the gift today. This after taking it to dinner with the bride's sister last night to give to her to pass along, and then FORGETTING THE GIFT AT THE RESTAURANT. I guess we were having too much fun and the bottle of wine was taking a little too much effect. I didn't remember until I drove down the icy tollway and was pulling into my garage. At that point I was not going back to retrieve it. So I made a second trip to Houston's at lunch today and then finally dropped off the gift at the bride's office this evening. It was a set of cookie trays and a big wooden rolling pin, and I added these cute Christmas Cookie Cutters to give it a cookie baking theme. Good thing I have her nine whole days to get those cookies together!